Torta De Cielo (Mexican Almond Cake)

Baking is a passion. Cakes, cookies, bread - you name it and I will jump to have it done. Every year for my husband's birthday I bake a different cake. We have made the humble vanilla cake, chocolate cake, fresh strawberry cake, his favorite pear and ginger cake, date and walnut cake (my mum had baked that one).

This year was no different. I started looking at what I could bake to make his special day extra special. Well,  I found the almond meal packet in my freezer (I had got this to make the french macron - well, never got to make em) and decided to bake an almond cake. 

I had picked up this simple baking book from homegoods and found this cake (torte) recipe that I loved and thought of making it.

Torta De Cielo is a Mexican Almond cake and generally is made by using whole almonds with or without skin which is coarsely powdered in a food processor. Since I already had the almond meal ready, I used that.

This cake is generally bakes in a round baking dish - just like a torte. Well, since half of my stuff is in storage due to our future move, I baked this cake in a bundt pan.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter
1 and 1/4 cup almond meal (you can use whole almonds too)
1 and 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 tablespoons all purpose flour
pinch of salt

Method

Lightly grease an 8" round cake pan OR as I have used, you can use a bundt pan too. If you are using whole almonds, then place them in a food processor and process to form a mealy mixture.
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar untill smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, almond extract and vanilla extract to this mixture and mix for about 3 to 5 minutes till its a nice fluffy mixture. Add the almond meal/almond mix and salt to this mixture and mix well. Now add the flour and fold it into this mixture till everything is incorporated. Do not over mix at this stage, just fold everything in.
Pour the batter into the greased pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 40 to 45 minutes, or untill a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let it stand to cool. You can dust it with powdered sugar and decorate with toasted almond slivers.